Meta-analysis
Pooling of effect estimates across studies, with assessment of heterogeneity, sensitivity and publication bias.
Random-effects models, forest and funnel plots, subgroup analysis
Advanced meta-analysis & evidence synthesis
Rigorous evidence synthesis, statistical analysis and systematic-review support for researchers across medicine, life sciences, management, economics, psychology, education and the social sciences.
Who we are
My Meta-Analysis is a research-support organization specializing in meta-analysis, systematic reviews and statistical analysis.
What we do
We support the full evidence-synthesis workflow: protocol, search, screening, extraction, analysis, reporting and journal submission.
Who we serve
Researchers and research teams preparing reviews and analyses for publication, from clinical medicine to management and economics.
Core services
Each service follows the relevant published methodological standards and is scoped to the study design, not to a template.
Systematic review
A documented search, screening, appraisal and synthesis, reported against PRISMA 2020.
Protocol, search strategy, risk of bias, flow diagram
Network meta-analysis
Comparison of several interventions at once, using direct and indirect evidence.
Transitivity, consistency, treatment rankings, league tables
Bayesian meta-analysis
Synthesis with explicit prior assumptions, useful when few studies are available or prior evidence should be formally incorporated.
Prior specification, posterior intervals, sensitivity to priors
Meta-regression
Examination of whether study-level characteristics explain differences between results.
Moderators, mixed-effects models, limits of study-level inference
Statistical analysis
Design-appropriate analysis of primary research data, with reproducible code and a clear methods description.
Model selection, survival analysis, sample-size considerations
Publication support
Reporting-guideline checks, manuscript editing, journal selection and responses to reviewer comments.
PRISMA and MOOSE adherence, submission materials, revisions
Methods we work with
From pairwise meta-analysis to network and Bayesian models, and from systematic reviews to scoping and qualitative synthesis.
Quantitative synthesis
- Random-effects meta-analysis
- Allows true effects to vary between studies and reports their average and spread.
- Network meta-analysis
- Compares multiple interventions through a connected network of trials.
- Bayesian meta-analysis
- Combines study data with prior distributions to produce posterior estimates.
- Meta-regression
- Relates effect sizes to study-level moderators.
- Diagnostic accuracy meta-analysis
- Pools sensitivity and specificity across test-accuracy studies.
- Individual participant data meta-analysis
- Synthesizes participant-level data rather than published summaries.
Review designs
- Systematic review
- Structured identification, appraisal and synthesis of all relevant studies.
- Scoping review
- Maps the extent and nature of evidence without pooling effects.
- Umbrella review
- Synthesizes evidence from existing systematic reviews.
- Rapid review
- Streamlines review methods to meet a time constraint, with stated trade-offs.
- Qualitative evidence synthesis
- Integrates findings from qualitative studies, including meta-synthesis.
- Living systematic review
- Updated continually as new evidence appears.
Not every method suits every field or dataset. Choosing the right design, or recommending against pooling, is part of the work.
Research areas
Medicine and health sciences are a flagship area. The same methods apply, with discipline-specific study designs and outcomes, across the fields below.
Medical & health sciences
Clinical research, public health, epidemiology, nursing, pharmacy, oncology, cardiology, neurology, psychiatry
Life & biological sciences
Genetics, genomics, microbiology, immunology, neuroscience, ecology, evolutionary biology
Psychology & behavioral sciences
Clinical, cognitive, social, developmental and educational psychology; mental health and addiction research
Management & business
Organizational behavior, human resource management, marketing, entrepreneurship, supply chain
Economics & econometrics
Health, development, labor, environmental and behavioral economics; economic policy
Education
Higher education, STEM education, medical education, online learning, special education
Social sciences
Sociology, social work, political science, public policy, criminology, migration studies
Environment & sustainability
Climate change, conservation, biodiversity, water resources, environmental health
Agriculture & food sciences
Agronomy, crop and soil science, animal and veterinary research, food science
Sports & exercise sciences
Exercise physiology, sports medicine, physical activity, injury prevention, rehabilitation
Engineering & technology
Biomedical, environmental and energy engineering; computer science and machine learning
Why My Meta-Analysis
A synthesis is only as useful as the method behind it. These are the commitments the work is organized around.
Methods matched to the question
The review design and statistical model follow from the research question and the available studies, not from a fixed package.
Published standards
Reviews are planned and reported against recognized guidance, including the Cochrane Handbook, PRISMA 2020 and the relevant extensions.
Clear boundaries
We provide research and evidence-synthesis support. We do not provide clinical advice, and results are not patient-specific guidance.
Transparent authorship and tools
Our research integrity and authorship statement and AI-use policy set out how work is done and credited.
How the process works
Most projects move through five stages. Some, such as a statistical re-analysis for a revision, need only one or two.
Scope
We review your question, study type, target journal and deadline, and agree what is feasible.
Protocol
Eligibility criteria, outcomes and analysis plan are specified, and registration is prepared where appropriate.
Search and selection
Searches are designed and documented, studies screened, and data extracted using a defined form.
Analysis and appraisal
Risk of bias and certainty of evidence are assessed, and the pre-specified analyses are run.
Reporting
Results are written up against the relevant reporting guideline, with support through submission and revision.
Research deliverables
What you receive depends on the service. A full review project can include:
- Protocol and registration-ready summary
- Search strategies for each database searched
- Screening and PRISMA flow records
- Extraction dataset and risk-of-bias assessments
- Analysis report with forest and funnel plots
- Methods and results text prepared for the manuscript
- Analysis code and outputs so results can be reproduced
Quality and reproducibility
Evidence synthesis should be checkable by someone else. The working practices below are designed to make that possible.
- Pre-specified analysis plan fixed before results are seen
- Independent screening and extraction where the protocol calls for it
- Documented software and versions for every analysis
- Audit trail of decisions, exclusions and deviations from protocol
- Confidential handling of unpublished manuscripts and data
Guides for researchers
Short, referenced explanations of the concepts that come up most often when planning and reporting an evidence synthesis.
What is meta-analysis?
A statistical method for combining quantitative results from separate studies that address the same question, to estimate an overall effect and examine why results differ.
Fixed-effect or random-effects model?
A fixed-effect model assumes one true effect shared by every study. A random-effects model assumes true effects vary, and estimates their average and spread.
What is PRISMA 2020?
A reporting guideline for systematic reviews, consisting of a 27-item checklist and a flow diagram that documents how studies were identified and selected.
Frequently asked questions
Answers to common questions about reviews and meta-analyses. More are in the full FAQ.
What is the difference between a systematic review and a meta-analysis?
A systematic review is a structured method for identifying, appraising and summarizing the relevant studies on a question. A meta-analysis is a statistical technique for combining the numerical results of those studies. Many systematic reviews include a meta-analysis, but a review can be reported narratively when the studies are too different to pool.
Does a meta-analysis need to be part of a systematic review?
In most cases it should be. A meta-analysis is normally built on a systematic, documented search and selection of studies. Pooling studies chosen informally risks biased estimates, because the result then depends on which studies happened to be found.
How many studies are needed for a meta-analysis?
There is no universal minimum. Two studies can be combined mathematically, but with few studies the estimate of between-study variation is imprecise, and methods such as meta-regression or tests for publication bias become unreliable. Whether pooling is meaningful depends on how similar the studies' questions are as much as on how many there are.
Which reporting guideline applies to a systematic review?
PRISMA 2020 is the standard reporting guideline for systematic reviews, with extensions for scoping reviews, diagnostic accuracy reviews, network meta-analyses and other designs. Some journals also ask for MOOSE when a meta-analysis is based on observational studies. The target journal's instructions for authors decide which applies.
Is meta-analysis suitable for every research field?
No. It requires studies that measure comparable outcomes in a comparable way. It is well established in clinical medicine, psychology and education, and used in parts of the social, management and ecological sciences, but it is less common elsewhere. In some fields a systematic or scoping review without pooling is the more appropriate design.
Do you provide clinical advice?
No. My Meta-Analysis provides research and evidence-synthesis support. The results of a review or analysis are not patient-specific medical advice.
Tell us about your research
Describe your question, study type and target journal. We will respond with the approach we would recommend and what we would need to begin.